Ok, here we GO!

Avatar does not belong to me, but it should….

Chapter 7 Epilogue

It had been months since she saw him and she couldn't stop thinking about him. It hadn't been a dream it had all been real and now she was in love and miserable. Over and over again she had thought about it. Why did it have to be him? Why did it have to be Zuko? Who else would you want it to be? She kept mentally chiding herself, Zuko was the enemy not her friend. But he did save you. Shut up.

She sat up in her sleeping bag and got out of it just like she had been doing every night for the past week. She went for a walk in the crisp air and tried to clear her thoughts, but however far she walked she couldn't get him out of her head. She kept walking deeper into the woods until she looked back and didn't see her companions. She sat down on a rock and took out a pouch she kept under her parka. She tossed it on the ground and the contents came out, they were seven small notes with blue ribbons tied to them.

She stared at them. Whenever the Fire Navy was close to their location she would always find one in her sleeping bag she knew they were from him. She had tried to catch him in the act but sleep would always overtake her and she would wake up angry to see a note on her when she woke up. She hadn't read them, so why did she keep them? She could just cast them into the sea and let the words drown and disappear forever but she couldn't do it. They sat in the pile tempting her. "Fine" she whispered to herself " I'll read one." She reached over and picked one. She untied the ribbon and opened the tiny note.

Katara-

I have said sorry so many times that I just don't know what to say anymore. I never meant for any of this to happen. I still want to talk to you, please. I will be waiting for you at the Humbi docks. Please come.

- Zuko

She stared at it. He asked to see me? He was sorry? She let her thoughts hang for a moment and tears came to her eyes. She opened another note.

Why haven't you come? I'm sorry, so very sorry I just want to talk. Katara please, I can't stop thinking about you. I think I love you.

He loves me? She was shaking and started tearing through the notes trying to figure out which one was the most recent. Then she found it.

I'm obviously wasting my time with this. Why did I think you were worth this kind of torture? You are torturing me, but I'll never hate you for it. I would give up anything for you and you know it. I have given up on capturing the Avatar, the entire world thinks I'm dead and I see no point to this anymore. You will never see me again.

The note dropped out of her hands and she sat there letting the tears trickle down her cheeks. She was angry with herself, she should have read the notes sooner and now she desperately wanted to see him, How was she going to find him? Where was the fire navy now? Was he still even with them? She shook her head and wiped the tears away, this is stupid it was too late to do anything now.

Days went by and she was still depressed despite the efforts of Aang and even her brother to cheer her up. Aang would bring her flowers everyday and tell her how pretty she was but she wasn't listening, her life was meaningless. The boys were growing very concerned. " Katara? Do you want to see a doctor or something?"

" No Aang."

He frowned and scooted closer. " Are you sure?"

" Yes, medicine can't cure what's wrong with me." She was looking off into the distance and noticed a few ships. She sighed; they were just merchant vessels.

" Hey Aang" Sokka said, he was sitting at the front steering Appa, " Should we stop at that town tonight? It looks like they have a market."

" Sure. We need more food." Aang scoured the town with his eyes. " We should be careful though, that looks like a fire nation ship."

WHAT! Katara pulled herself over to the side of Appa's saddle and looked at where Aang pointed. It was a fire navy ship and maybe Zuko was on it.

" Maybe we shouldn't stay then, I mean we could get caught by the fire nation." Sokka started to turn Appa away from the town.

" Wait Sokka." Katara came up to the boys and sat down. " We do need food, so lets camp outside of town and I will go into town and buy food."

They stared at her, Katara hadn't talked that much in two days and if she did talk it wasn't very enthusiastic. Aang thought about it for a moment " Does this have something to do with Zuko?"

" No, absolutely not, I never want to see that jerk again. I just want to walk around the town, it will help make me feel better." She pointed to the market. " Doesn't it look like fun?"

" I guess." Aang rubbed his head and eventually gave into her request, anything to make her happy.

They landed and started setting up camp Aang gave her the money and told her to be quick it was already getting dark. She ran down the path and was soon in the town, it was already dark and she had to catch a vendor before he completely closed up for the night.

" Mangos and papayas please. Oh and some of that dried deer over there." She pointed at the hanging meat.

" Ok." He gathered what she asked for and she paid him. " Be safe on your way home, firebenders are about."

" Thanks, I will" She walked toward the docks where they had seen the ship earlier, it was dark now and torches were lit throughout the town. When she got to the docks she hid in the shadows watching the fire nation guards at the entrance to the ship. She looked up and saw a man leaning over the side. She recognized him, it was that old man she had seen Zuko with, his uncle maybe? She couldn't quite remember. She watched the old man turn from the ocean and he stood there for a while, he was talking to someone.

She walked away from the guards and made her way to the water. She slowly trudged into it not wanting to make too much noise and alerting the guards. She swam over to the side of the boat and pushed herself up with waterbending onto the hanging anchor. She climbed up it and peered over the edge of the deck.

" I understand why you are so upset prince Zuko but all is not lost." Zuko was walking back and forth with flames bursting from his hands. " We can still capture the Avatar there is still hope of that."

" Uncle!" Zuko turned to the old man and growled. " Please, just leave me alone for a while I can't think straight with you pestering me."

" Very well." Iroh made his way to the door. " Please get some rest."

Zuko watched him leave and went over to the side of the deck. He stared at the stars. He wondered about so many things but he just couldn't understand why she didn't answer him. He gritted his teeth he would not cry he had already shed too many tears for that stupid girl.

" You should be nicer to your uncle." Out of instinct Zuko threw a fireball at the source of the sound. Katara used the water out of a mop bucket near by to extinguish the flame. " Its just me you jerk."

He stared. It couldn't be her. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. There she was. " Why are you here?"

" I don't know." She looked the other way and rubbed her shoulders. " You said you wanted to talk."

" You read the notes?"

" All of them, just a few days ago… I avoided them for a long time… Sorry." She looked at him. " I don't blame you for being angry with me. I was angry too."

" Because it was me."

" Yes." They looked at each other in silence.

" I'm sorry that you had to find out like that. Of course I didn't know when I was ever going to let you know." He was lost for words.

" You said that you think you love me, is that true?" She took a step closer to him.

" You said the same thing, is that true." He took a step closer to her.

" I can't stop thinking about you… so I think I do."

" Same here."

" I feel lonely without you, I can't eat or sleep or laugh or do anything right." She looked down " I feel so pathetic."

" That makes two of us." He took another step toward her and stood within grabbing distance. " Its up to you."

She looked at him with confused eyes " What?"

" What we do from here is up to you. Since we both think we love each other maybe we should give this a chance." He stared into her big blue eyes and was becoming lost in their depths.

His eyes were like fire and she couldn't look away. She wanted to be consumed by their eternal warmth. " I think… I would like that." She reached up and felt his face with her palms.

The cool touch of her fingers sent chills down his spine. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close. " Are you sure?" He put his forehead against hers and looked into her eyes.

"Yes." They kissed under the light of the moon and relished each other's warmth. The kiss lasted many moments becoming more passionate as the time passed. They released their kiss both gasping for air but they were still holding each other.

" So I'm a monster right?"

She shook her head and traced his scar with her fingers. " If you were I would think you the nicest monster I had ever met." She kissed him lightly. " I have to go."

" I had a feeling." He smiled. " I guess we must part ways for now."

" Yes… We both have our missions to accomplish. You know that we can't truly be together until the war ends." She released him and walked to the edge of the ship. " If you change your mind and try to capture Aang again I promise that I will stop you."

He smiled at her " I look forward to the challenge." He watched her stand on the edge of the deck and look down. " Wait." He ran over and kissed her.

" One for the road?" She gave him a funny look.

" I love you."

She stared at him and then smiled. " I love you too." She jumped over board and he watched her swim away.

THE END

See there told ya I couldn't leave poor Zuko hangin, the guy needs some lovin! Anyway that's the end! First fic that I actually finished. Pushing the Completed button feels soooooooooo good! Thanks to everyone for all the reviews I feel like I'm slowly getting better at writing. I keep going through the old chapters and finding typos (MS word can only do so much!) so I'm gonna start fixing those and I'm working on another story "Of Water Queens and Fire Lords." Another Zutara, I think there the best couple. I'm planning that story out more than this first one and I have a feeling that its gonna be a long story like 10-20 chapters so it'll take most of my x-mas break to write. Anyway Thanks again! Ciao!